Last month, Sony Japan announced an upcoming retirement of Blu-ray Disc media and other physical media formats. On January 23, the company's Recording Media department addressed its "valued customers" via a short press release. At some point in February (2025), production of "Blu-ray Disc media, MiniDiscs for recording, MD data for recording, and MiniDV cassettes" will cease. Reports from late January suggest that the Recording Media division's last factory will face closure in the coming weeks, signalling the end of commercial supplies. Additionally, Sony disclosed that no "successor models" will be released. Naturally, fans of optical media formats did not welcome Sony's announcement regarding the retirement of these products.

Rival manufacturers have taken the opportunity to offer their fares—fresh news reports have pointed to an interesting Verbatim Japan office-issued press release. The Taiwanese storage specialist and I-O Data pushed out a joint statement, assuring that they: "will live up to the trust of customers through stable supply and continued sales of optical discs in the Japanese market." The two companies appear to be seizing the moment, but their announcement did not name or shame Sony: "the domestic optical disc market is currently at a major turning point, with some manufacturers withdrawing from manufacturing and sales businesses and other trends that are shrinking the supply system. Under these circumstances, Verbatim Japan is working closely with I-O DATA to continue to provide high-quality optical discs to the Japanese market, with stable supply as its top priority."Regarding the provision of high-quality optical discs, the two partners stated: "Verbatim has built a manufacturing system that incorporates advanced technology established in Japan and conducts thorough quality control to develop high-quality optical disc products on a global scale. In the Japanese market, I-O DATA, as the sole domestic distributor, has established a system for the stable supply of these high-quality optical disc products. Through the strong collaboration
between the two companies, we will continue to provide highly reliable products to our customers."

Looking into the future: "Verbatim Japan and I-O DATA will continue to play an important role in supporting the supply of optical discs in the Japanese market through their 'thorough quality control' and 'stable production system.' Furthermore, by providing highly reliable recording media for data storage, they will continue to meet customer needs and contribute to the development of the entire recording media market."Verbatim exhibited a new Slimline Blu-ray Writer model at CES 2025—as reported by Tom's Hardware, this could be another "encouraging" example of continued support.